Why we carry a few appliances.

When we opened the showroom, we put a domestic espresso machine on the back counter — something ordinary. Within the first year, we replaced it twice. Neither was worth repairing; neither was designed to be.

This is a long way of saying that we became, reluctantly, students of appliance design. The two we carry now — an espresso machine from Milan and a 30-inch induction range we specify by order — are the result of about six years of this education.

They are not inexpensive. They are, however, repairable. Parts stay in production. That is, for us, a reasonable definition of an appliance worth buying.